Cautiously Danny rose to his feet and began walking down the side of the hedge on the field side. He was making for home. Strangers with revolvers were not to be followed in the dark, even by detectives, when the latter were unarmed. But before long he had stopped short and was peering through the hedge. A little red light had caught his eye. Yes, it was the tail-light of a motor—A.R. 1692! It was the same car that had passed him—he remembered the number! The head-lights had been turned off. The great body of the car loomed like some huge monster in the darkness. Danny could just make out the form of a man sitting quite still in the driver’s seat. He seemed to be waiting for something.
Perhaps the man who had been talking in the ditch was going to rejoin him. Danny, managing to overcome his fear of the revolver, decided to wait and watch. Before long there was a slight sound and the man he had seen before stepped on to the road from the grassy border that had muffled his approaching steps. The men exchanged a few words in the same guttural language Danny had heard coming from the ditch. Then the driver got down from the car and lit up the head-lights. A bright shaft shot along the road.
Bending down, the man allowed his face to be caught in it for a moment, and Danny looked with all his eyes, so that he might remember every feature.
He was a thick-set man with a square, black beard and thick-lensed, round glasses. An exclamation of annoyance from him brought his friend round to help adjust one of the lamps, and Danny had a glimpse of the second man’s face. He knew him in a moment! It was the mysterious stranger of the bicycle incident, on whose track he had been for so long!
The head-lights being successfully fixed up, the driver of the car went round to the back, and Danny watched, fascinated, while he removed the number board and substituted for it one showing “L. 323.” Then together the men raised the hood of the car, though it was a cloudless night. After moving about some time they both got into the car. But the automatic starter would not work, and the driver, grumbling to himself, climbed out again and went round to turn the handle.
This brought his face once more within the light of the great lamps. Danny’s eyes opened wide at what he saw. The motorist was no longer a black-bearded, spectacled, man. He had now a bristling red moustache and his bright little blue eyes showed out from beneath rather bushy eyebrows! A moment later the car had hummed off down the road.
Bending down, the man allowed his face to be caught in the bright light, and Danny looked with all his eyes, so that he might remember every feature.
CHAPTER V
THE DARK PASSAGE
It was nine o’clock when Danny woke up the next day—a golden Sunday morning. At first he thought his night adventures had been a dream, and then he realised that it was all true, and jumped out of bed. He longed to tell someone about them. But, remembering the snubs he had received before, and that he had been accused of having lied, he determined to keep his wonderful discoveries to himself. This adventure should be all his own. Danny the Detective would have a big triumph when the whole mysterious case was brought to light, and the wily strangers stood in the dock! His first impulse was to make straight for the scene of last night’s adventure. Then, remembering that private detectives as well as other people must fulfil their duty to God, he set off for church. And after all, he had much to thank God for! Last night he had had a very narrow escape. And also he had got the desire of his heart—a new and important clue.